16
P R E S T 0-T I M E S
P. E. CONROY
DIES IN BOSTON
Ex-President of the National Music Merchants'
Association and a Leading Piano Merchant
in St. Louis Will Be Missed Very Much.
Patrick E. Conroy, 65 years old, president of the
Conroy Piano Company of St. Louis, died on October
20, at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston
after a brief illness.
Mr. Conroy was for many years prominent in the
affairs of the National Association of Music Mer-
chants, holding the presidency in 1919-20. Away back
in 1921 he was chairman of the delegates representing
the dealers in the annual election of the Music Indus-
tries Chamber of Commerce at the Drake Hotel,
Chicago. The other members of his committee at
that time were Henry Dreher of Cleveland and J. G.
Corley of Richmond, Va. In 1922 Mr. Conroy was
be done before our industry will find itself on the
firm foundation that will ensure its immediate future.
"Wherever we go, we are engulfed, as it were, in a
sea of music. And yet with all this public interest in
music, with this apparently insatiable hunger of the
people for music, our basic product, the music indus-
try itself, without whose instruments there could
really be no music at all, pines and languishes for lack
of public support. Why is this?
"We have laid the onus for our present plight at
the door of almost every other industry than our own.
We have accused the automobile, the multitudinous
new household devices, and above all the sound-pic-
tures and the radio of maliciously filching our patrons
away from us. We did not see, apparently, that it
was our own supine neglect of our opportunities,
sometimes of the very channels which these industries
were holding out their hands to give us, that was
the cause of our dismay.
"Only hard, constructive thinking, coupled with sin-
cere cooperative effort of all concerned will rescue
our industry from the whirling maelstrom of oppos-
ing influences in which it now finds itself.
"The greater the number of amateur players, the
greater will be the demand for professional teachers.
For these reasons, if for no other, those of us whose
business is primarily with professionals, can ill afford
to neglect the support of amateur activities.
'"Now the amateur field in our case is best ap-
proached through the educators of the country, or
through those who supervise and lead the musical or
recreational activities of young people. These leaders
can be reached only through an agency that has and
deserves their complete confidence. Anyone who has
had dealings with them need not be told that they
look strongly askance, and rightly so, at anything that
savors of commercial interest and they instantly
resent any implication in this direction. It conse-
quently follows that no work which we can directly
do for our own account can compare in effectiveness
with that directed by and through the Bureau. The
Bureau has already laid the preparatory ground work
in its brochure, 'Fretted Instrument Orchestras,' and
it now only remains to 'follow through.' "
A TRIP THROUGH NEW ENGLAND.
V. 10. CONROY.
re-elected a director of the Music Merchants' Asso-
ciation of St. Louis, the other two being E. A. Kiesel-
horst and Val Reis.
In advance of the 1919 convention in Chicago, Mr.
Conroy published fourteen points to stiffen interest
in convention work and awaken enthusiasm among
the members. Point 1 was: "You don't know it all
and you may learn something." Point 8 was: "You
will learn of the best methods to eliminate dishonest
and unfair competition."
Point 14 was: "Last,
but not least, you owe it to yourself, to your business,
to your family, to your descendants, to keep up with
what is going on in your business and not be a dead
one."
In 1919, Mr. Conroy was a leader in a movement to
induce the government to establish national conserva-
tories, one of which was to be in St. Louis. And he
headed a music merchants' committee that fall which
proclaimed a special music period for St. Louis from
November 3 to 11.
PROMOTION FOR
FRETTED INSTRUMENTS
Meeting Held at Buffalo for This Purpose Headed by
Henry C. Lomb, President.
The work of the National Bureau for the Advance-
ment of Music in the field of fretted instrument pro-
motion was commended highly at a meeting of the
National Association of Musical Instrument and Ac-
cessories Manufacturers held at the Buffalo Athletic
Club on October 10 and 11, Buffalo, N. Y. The fol-
lowing members were present. L. A. Elkington, G.
F. Chapin, Standard Musical String & Mfg. Co.;
Jay Kraus, Harmony Company; H. Kuhrmeyer,
Stromberg-Voisiuet Company; Henry C. Lomb, Wa-
verly Musical Products Co.; Wm. F. Ludwig, Lud-
wig & Ludwig.
The resignation of Alfred L. Smith, who is now
connected with C. G. Conn, Ltd., of Elkhart, Indiana,
was accepted with regret by the Association.
The report of Henry C. Lomb, president of the
Association, was analytical. Mr. Lomb spoke of "the
problem of bringing about, in some manner, a change
in the present unfavorable trend of the music busi-
ness in general and of our own branch of it, viz.,
the fretted and percussion instrument field in particu-
lar. While these are unmistakable signs of improve-
ment on our business horizon, there is still much to
A friend of the Presto-Times, writing this paper
from New York last week, without any reference to
pianos, tells of historical sights in these words:
"Spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Hart-
ford, Conn. Thursday we drove all over Worcester,
Mass., and the adjoining county. Friday we drove
to Cambridge, seeing en route Artemas Ward's old
homestead and Henry Ford's Wayside Inn, immor-
talized by Longfellow. Washington ate there and
LaFayette and other celebrities slept there. At one
time it was known as How's Inn; at another time as
the Red Horse Tavern. Drove on to Boston and
Charlestown, rapidly viewing the State House and
Commons, Boston Fish Pier, the old South Church,
Faneuil Hall (now a market), Bunker Hill Monu-
ment and other places, and Saturday morning was
spent in the Mountain View cemetery where Artemas
Ward is buried. Tombstones here back to 1736 are
typical of the gruesome period and covered with old-
time inscriptions, the theme of most of them being
"'As you are now, so once was I;
Remember, youth, you too must die.'
"Surely, I'll die, but that is more reason for not
wasting time now brooding over the 'worms in the
once proud flesh,' as one tombstone described it. Oh,
well, I guess they got a kick out of their gloom; no
wonder they hanged witches."
SELECTRAPHONE IS DEPENDABLE.
When alternating current is not available for the
Selectraphone, manufactured by the Western Electric
Piano Co., 832-850 Blackhawk street, Chicago, it can
be equipped to work on 110-120 volt direct current by
using a rotary converter. Simplicity and durability
have been the keynote in the mechanical design and
it is employed throughout the construction. The
Selectraphone is sturdy and dependable, capable of
standing continuous play for years.
BAY SALE SET FOR NOV. 10.
The sale of the H. C. Bay piano factory at Bluffton,
Indiana, which was advertised to take place October
10, has been postponed one month, that is, until
November 10. Extensive repairs have been made at
the old Bay factory so that it is hoped that the prop-
erty will bring a fairer price and thus help the divi-
dends to the Bay creditors.
CARLE. ACKERMAN DIES.
Carl E. Ackerman, at one time editor of the Musi-
cal Age, New York, died at his home in Summit, N.
T., on October 25. He was 49 years old.
The World Music Publishing Company, 5429-33
Market street, Philadelphia, is featuring a new song
called "Reuben Brown," intended to represent the
ways of a man from "a hick town," if there is any
such place.
November 1, 1929
QULBRANSEN PLANS
SELLING CAMPAIGN
Issues Sales Manual and Shows Dealers How
to Conduct Sales Training School
and Get Business.
Needers of pianos who do not recognize their need
constitute the chief market for pianos today, accord-
ing to F. W. Wood of the piano department of the
Gulbransen Company, Chicago.
The company has gone to great pains to conduct
a survey of the use and need of pianos in a group of
widely separated cities throughout the nation—not
the largest cities nor the smallest, but taking in some
as large as Rochester or Syracuse, N. Y. In this
way it has secured data at first hand, reliable infor-
mation as to actual conditions existent among many
thousands of representative American homes.
This survey showed that the principal piano mar-
ket, to be reached only through creative selling, con-
sisted of needers who do not recognize their need of a
piano and that they are 81.2 per cent of the whole
population. The needers who recognize their need
are only 8.8 per cent of the entire population; these
Mr. Wood classifies as ready-to-pick buyers and to
them the untrained salesman always drifts. This 8.8
per cent is a field too small for worth-while results,
Mr. Wood says. Adding the 81.2 to the 8.8 per cent
we have 90 per cent accounted for. The other 10 per
cent of the inhabitants are the owners of satisfactory
pianos and do not need to be called upon.
The Gulbransen Company is furnishing neatly
printed pamphlets to help dealers and salesmen to
conduct the most intensive and comprehensive cam-
paign of selling that company has ever put forth.
The claim is made that there are eleven stages in
building Gulbransen sales and these are set out in
one of the booklets.
How to organize and conduct a Gulbransen training
school is the subject of another booklet. Emphasis
is placed on selling the need for piano music. Many
other points on which the salesman should be well
posted are brought out as well as hints about caution
and the diplomacy that must be exercised in handling
interruptions.
The estimate that there are 2,376,000 immediate
needers for Gulbransen pianos means that it would
take the present piano output of the entire industry
ten years to supply the need. This means two things
—first, many of these homes are not being approached
on pianos and, secondly, they are not being properly
approached; all of which proves the vast opportunity
for trained salesmen.
As one of the booklets says, "A great industry with
a background of two hundred years is being awakened
and revamped. This means an opportunity of a life-
time. The well-trained man entering the piano field
now has an unusual chance to prove his worth and
advance in position as well as earnings."
FIFTY NEW NUMBERS
BY M'KINLEY MUSIC CO.
Piano Solos, Vocal Selections, Four Hands and Violin
Solos in the New Catalogs.
Fifty new McKinley numbers are now ready for
the season; in fact, the catalogue is just out. These
numbers include songs with violin obbligato or ukulele
accessory, piano solos, four hands and violin solos
with piano accompaniment. The McKinley Music
Co., 1501-15 East 55th street, Chicago, also announces
five big selling music books.
This great publishing house whose publications of
hits and other music are known from coast to coast
in this country and in foreign lands, in issuing its new
world-famous folio has responded to many requests
from dealers who wanted the best from recent com-
posers, and the company says to its dealers: "Unless
you have stock up to No. 2331, your line is incom-
plete."
LIONEL TOMPKINS WITH BALDWIN.
Lionel Torapkins, author, editor, expert advertising
man, is now, as he puts it, "most happy" in his new
connection in the advertising and publicity depart-
ment of the Baldwin Piano Company at 142 West
Fourth street, Cincinnati. His long experience in
publicity work will stand him in good stead in serving
the Baldwin house in its great advertising depart-
ment.
MRS. HENRY BEHNING DIES.
Mrs. Ida Wendland Behning, widow of Henry
Behning, who for many years headed the Behning
Piano Company of New York, died on October 17
at her home, 90 Eighth avenue, Brooklyn. She leaves
two daughters, Dorothea Behning and Elsie B.
Snyder.
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